The Right to Vote

In response to reports of a scheme to destroy Democratic voter registrations by Voter Outreach of America, a Republican Party-funded group that is registering voters in a number of states, People For the American Way Foundation President Ralph G. Neas issued the following statement:

Washington - The need to protect voter rights in the face of attempts to suppress and intimidate voters -- especially minority voters -- is crucial this election year, People For the American Way Foundation (PFAWF) president Ralph G. Neas said today at a Capitol Hill news conference with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland.

People For the American Way Foundation (PFAWF) today asked Florida election officials to reverse a decision to throw out thousands of otherwise valid voter registrations simply because applicants forgot to check a box indicating that they are U.S. citizens.

Miami Beach, FL – Mi Familia Vota (MFV), a nonpartisan voter registration effort committed to empowering Hispanic citizens, went to federal court on Wednesday to prevent the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the City of Miami Beach from forcing people registering new voters off of public sidewalks just outside the Miami Beach Convention Center during naturalization ceremonies scheduled for Friday, September 17.

This report lays out a historical review of more than a hundred years of efforts to suppress and intimidate minority voters following emancipation, through Reconstruction and the “Second Reconstruction,” the years immediately following the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

New York – Today nearly 8,000 people formed a three-mile long symbolic unemployment line through the heart of New York City, drawing the nation’s attention to failed economic policies that have left 8.2 million Americans unemployed.

In a tremendous victory for Florida voters, a decision by a Florida state administrative court to require that the results from electronic voting machines must be included when recounts are ordered in close Florida elections. PFAWF intervened in the case brought against the Florida Department of State by the ACLU and other civil rights' advocates.

Less then ten weeks before the national elections, potential problems with voter registration lists, new and unproven technologies, insufficient resources for poll worker training, and inadequate voter education are increasingly being scrutinized for their potential to rob voters of their right to cast a vote that is counted. These, however, are not the only threats to the integrity of the elections, as a report released by People For the American Way Foundation and the NAACP makes clear.

With new doubts about the reliability and accountability of electronic voting machines and daily revelations of continuing chaos in the Florida elections process — including a Republican Party mailing questioning the ability to recount votes cast by electronic voting machines — People For the American Way Foundation calls for the immediate establishment of voter-verifiable audit trails in Florida to ensure that every vote will count

Washington - People For the American Way Foundation (PFAWF) president Ralph G. Neas Thursday testified on the continuing disarray in preparation for the elections in Florida, and detailed a nationwide, nonpartisan coalition program to help protect voter rights: Election Protection.

People For the American Way Foundation is giving Florida voters the opportunity to search the list of 47,000 "potential felon matches" the state claims may be purged from the voter rolls. The list is now a public document available as a result of the July 1st decision by Leon County Circuit Court in CNN v. Florida Department of State.